You all know the guy: he plugs a "name drop" in every conversation, stretching the subject to fit in his you-know-who-I-know opportunity. But, knowing the right people does not always mean the president of Intel. Sometimes, the best people to know are family and friends with skills in areas you are lacking.

As you can see from this blog, I am dedicated to doing as many projects by hand as I can. The driving force behind this goal is saving as many pennies as possible! At the end of the night, folks, all that will matter is that you are married to your best friend, your soul mate. What won't matter are the Swarovski crystals you spent a small fortune adorning your centerpieces with, that ended up ignored when the dancin' got started.

To this end, I have been recruiting as many of my friends and family as possible. My sister (who is an AMAZING seamstress) has agreed to bustle my dress. Most bridal salons charge a flat rate of $200 for this service. Many brides just factor this cost into the cost of their dress, without considering who they know that might be willing to provide the service for nothing (or, as I plan for my sister, a bottle of wine). In addition, we have talked about adding some buttons to the back of the dress to smooth the look of the zipper.

I was also able to drastically reduce the cost of a DJ by using a friend. The average DJ runs around $800 for 4-6 hours of service. This seemed expensive, and that cost doesn't include travel and a hotel for out-of-town companies. In fact, many couples spend upwards of $1200 to have some directed tunes at their reception. A friend of mine I met through YoungLife (awesome, awesome, awesome youth outreach program) happens to work for a DJ in EO, and has done a couple weddings solo. I had planned to try to use this company (I do wish to shop local as much as possible), and hoped WS would be able to do my reception. After asking him about pricing, he told me their flat rate for 4 hours was $700 with additional cost for time after that, as well as cost for travel and a hotel. Although steep, I had planned for this to be the case. I was shocked when he went on to tell me that he would charge me only $600, no travel, and no hotel if I could find him somewhere to stay! Additionally, he would stay until the party fizzled for no additional cost!

John Lennon got it right: "I get by with a little help from my friends."

1 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Anyone else out there needing a DJ ...I have a wedding planning business and my husband is a DJ with over 12,000 songs, laser light show and if DSL is available on site he can download on the spot any song requests. 500.00/event, if local in Baker city 541-523-6767